STATE HOUSE ROUNDUP: Eighth is not as great

Monday

Mar 5, 2018 at 10:39 AMMar 5, 2018 at 10:39 AM

By Matt Murphy STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

A recap and analysis of the week in state government.

Pirouetting away from a confrontation with Beacon Hill's bigwigs, marijuana regulators sidestepped budding concerns over home delivery and pot use in public places, ceding some ground to Gov. Charlie Baker, who returned from Washington, D.C., to offer clarity on assault weapons and hone his meteorological chops.

Massive flooding up and down the coast from a nasty nor'easter put a very large wet blanket over a week that also saw U.S. News & World Report downgrade Massachusetts from the best to the eighth-best state in the country.

The rankings provided fodder for the governor's political opponents, even as some political scientists dismissed them as "junk science." But even though the magazine did change its scoring and its scientific validity may be subjective, the concerns raised are probably legitimate.

Massachusetts earned its highest scores for education and access to health care, but got dinged on affordability, infrastructure, transportation and fiscal stability. None of that will come as much of a surprise to the more than 6.8 million people who willingly call Massachusetts home.

The Cannabis Control Commission, meeting for three straight days to weigh the input it received from Baker's administration, lawmakers, stakeholders and the public on industry regulations, opted to pump the brakes on its plans to allow delivery services and pot cafes to open in July.

Instead, regulators said they would postpone decisions on those businesses until at least the fall, and focus on the traditional marijuana retail industry.

The decision to delay came after Baker, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and dozens of other lawmakers urged the commission to take baby steps, rather than one large leap into regulated retail pot sales.

Commissioner Shaleen Title gave her fellow board members some cover to accept the advice of the governor and others with an accepted compromise that if and when social consumption and home delivery is folded into the fabric of the industry, craft cooperatives, farmers and small businesses -- especially those in underserved communities -- will get an exclusive window to obtain licenses.

Baker, who spent the weekend and much of Feb. 26 in Washington for the National Governors Association winter meeting, where guns took center stage, returned to find one of his Democratic opponents -- Setti Warren -- making hay of a 2013 television interview during which Baker waffled over his position on a federal assault weapons ban.

Baker, since taking office, has never suggested a retreat from the state's assault weapons ban, though he did take some issue with how Attorney General Maura Healey went about her crackdown on copycat assault weapons.

In the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting, Baker made it clear that whatever his past position might have been he now supports reinstatement of a federal ban on assault weapons, drawing frequently shunned national media attention in the process.

He also announced while in D.C. that he would be joining a multi-state agreement forged in his backyard to begin sharing information with New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island about individuals prohibited from owning a gun.

Baker supposedly learned of the four-state pact -- all led by Democratic governors -- through press accounts, and spoke to Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy while in Washington about joining.

Other action on guns -- namely passage of a red-flag law currently under consideration -- will fall to the Legislature, which still seems to be struggling to find its equilibrium.

Senate President Harriette Chandler selected the new leadership team that will help her navigate the remaining months of the session while the House paid their respects to the family of Northampton's Rep. Peter Kocot, whose death has created uncertainty around the House's health care reform plans.

Chandler tapped veteran Democrat and confidant Cindy Creem to be her right-hand woman, naming the Newton lawmaker the newest Senate majority leader. Behind Creem, Sen. Sal DiDomenico of Everett got bumped up the ladder as well, becoming one of three assistant majority leaders.

DiDomenico, whose ascent has been quick since joining the Senate in the spring of 2010, is one of at least four or five angling to become president next January, but Chandler was adamant that the promotion from vice chair of Ways and Means, if you can call it that, was not meant to give DiDomenico any advantages. Chandler said it was more of a "horizontal" move.

The competition for the presidency could soon become a little less crowded, however, as it appears Sen. Eileen Donoghue could soon be headed for the Beacon Hill exits. Insiders in Lowell believe the move for Donoghue to become the next city manager of Lowell is already a done deal, though the City Council voted last week to post the job and wait until the end of March to name former state Rep. Kevin Murphy's successor at Lowell City Hall.

If Donoghue follows Linda Forry out the door, Ways and Means Chairwoman Karen Spilka would be the only women left in race for the presidency along with Sen. Eric Lesser, who has even fewer years in the Senate than DiDomenico, and veteran Sen. Mark Montigny, who says he hasn't foreclosed the idea but isn't campaigning either.

A Donoghue departure also could spark even more shakeups in Senate leadership, which were all prompted by Sen. Stanley Rosenberg's decision to step down amid an Ethics Committee investigation into allegations that his husband sexually assaulted men with business pending on Beacon Hill and meddled in Senate business.

While House lawmakers have so far avoided being drawn into the sexual harassment scandals tearing through capitols around the country, anonymous reports of sexual harassment centered around the State House prompted a review of the chambers policies that culminated with a hefty report last week.

House counsel Jim Kennedy's report found an "overarching perception" that anyone who stepped forward to report sexual harassment at the State House could not be guaranteed confidentially, potentially threatening careers.

Among the many recommendations put forward by Kennedy was a proposal to hire new human resources personnel to handle complaints, and the creation of an ad hoc committee of lawmakers to investigate peers accused of misconduct.

Some of the recommendations can be implemented immediately, but others will require changes to House rules that DeLeo hopes can be addressed before his branch begins its annual budget debate in late April.

By that time, Lynn's Brendan Crighton should be a senator and Rep. Nick Collins of South Boston will have one foot out the door after Rep. Evandro Carvalho essentially cleared Collins's path to the Senate by abandoning his Senate bid to run for Suffolk County district attorney instead.

Carvalho's district attorney campaign got off to a fast start, as well, with a viral video of a Boston cop stopping a young black man simply walking down the street to question him, giving him an immediate issue -- police race relations -- to latch on to.

The Facebook video was followed by reports about racist social media postings by a state trooper involved in a shooting on Interstate 93.

Carvalho said the accused trooper, whose name is Matthew Sheehan and went by the screen name "Big Irish," should be fired, and he found common cause with Baker, who agreed.

"These instances continue to show we need more accountability, transparency and diversity in our law enforcement," Carvalho said.